Welcome to the Game Jam 17 page, I will be editing this top section a lot during the event, for now, here is the logo I made while waiting for my first food run.

This is my first ever Game Jam participation ever, so, kind of excited and nervous…

This page may grow to be super long, so, I used headings to create a navigable menu at the top for your convenience.

As the Jam is technically hosted on a discord, I don't see it feasible to link it… but here is the link for the post just in case it does work: https://discord.com/channels/234721327200731136/1086441133665689680/1132753223522996356

The Jam content log begins below this line.

So, right off the bat I am off to a great start… realised my Wiki is 1 hour off…

Got to fix that…

Here is my entry for the jam:

I have removed the vimeo videos but kept the links here for the time being I aim to reupload them to YouTube at some point, assuming I can figure out which video it was…

— MrValentine 2024/07/20 14:04

My challenge for Game-Jam 17:

-| Add as many of my forum based tutorials to the community wiki site.
-| Develop something that feels like a game, at least moving a character
   around the screen with some kind of interaction. Music and SoundFX are a must.
-| Add the game project code as a tutorial to the wiki.
-| create videos of the in-game interaction progress of the game thing.
-| Create the art assets as I cannot share assets I purchased to redistribute 
   freely, unless some free share options can be found.
-| Remember to sleep.
-| Document the Jam on the wiki. and the discord [here].

Oh and I aim, if I can fix it easily, to add time stamps, despite the page having time stamps on the entry changes list when you view the history of the page.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 18:08

Fixed signatures to not include emails. more of a wiki thing, but I am going with what I have.

I woke up about an hour ago, made some breakfast, did my ablutions and such, and hit the desk with seconds to spare at 17:59:35 roughly…

My server appears to be an hour behind, so going to try tackling that if not, will have to come back and edit every time stamp manually to be the correct time…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 17:12

Digging into the guts…

https://www.dokuwiki.org/tips:timezone

Fingers crossed.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 17:20

Testing signature timing with the change made…. nope…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 17:25

Going to try editing the init file…

https://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.europe.php

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 17:25

That worked! yay, going to hunt for the handful of time stamps across the wiki just to be sure I know what I am doing now rather than later…

I left the previous time stamps aside from the first one as 17, so that the preceding messages make sense. but do keep in mind, this post began after 18:00.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 18:33

Completed the clock updates, with that out of the way, I can just click the signature thing and it does its magic.

So, let's get started…

Here is the umm, current state of this Wiki:

—

—

And the time stamp of the MonoGame Setting up guide page:

https://monogamecommunity.wiki/doku.php?id=setting_up_monogame&rev=1690529197

So, I think that is all the pre-setup required for now, time for me to get things going.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 18:42

I just realised, this wiki is barely a week old and already a Game Jam has occurred…. cool.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 18:48

I forgot to include this in the original post…… oops, better somewhere, than nowhere…

rbwhitaker — 23/07/2023 20:16
Here's the plan for Game Jam 17!

When: Friday, 28 July 2023 at 6:00pm local time to Sunday, 
30 March 2023 at 8:00pm local time. That's 50 hours 
(though you'll almost certainly need sleep and breaks).
Who: Work on your own game dev project or find others 
here to work on a game with you. It's up to you. 
There are no limits on team sizes, but a 2.25-day project 
probably can't sustain more than about four people per team.
What: There are no constraints on tools or technologies. 
I have a personal goal to try to publish what I end up with 
as a "Prototype" project on itch.io, and perhaps you'll 
find that a useful target as well.

Update Screenshots: I want to see people's progress, 
and plan on sharing my own. My proposal is that you share 
a screenshot seven times during the course of the event:
Friday evening.
Late Saturday morning.
Late Saturday afternoon.
Saturday evening.
Late Sunday morning.
Late Sunday afternoon.
Sunday evening at the end.
These updates are not meant to take up a lot of time. 
Run what you've got and grab a screenshot and post it. 
It doesn't need anything fancy. It doesn't need to be a GIF, 
it doesn't need special effects, 
and it doesn't need any descriptive text. 
We just want to see your game evolve over a few hours. 
If you don't have anything on-screen to show for it, 
find any simple, suitable replacement instead. 
A screenshot of the code, a camera picture of 
your paper prototype, etc.

Final Results: Ideally, also Sunday evening, 
but within 24 hours of the end, post some sort of 
"final result." Ideally, this would be a link to 
find/download the game online. But even something like 
a 1-minute video recording of gameplay is a good substitute 
if you're not ready to share it online.

This is a casual jam, and there are no official winners or losers. 
If you participate and make progress on a game, that's a win!

Adapt these rules (timing, screenshot rate, etc.) 
to suit your needs. It's flexible.

// side note, 
// I modified this text to fit on a page 
// without having to scroll right and left.

As mentioned at the foot, I edited the text.

Time to set my alarms so I don't forget to post progress snapshots.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 19:01

Remembered I have a gallery behind the wiki, updated the snapshot image to use that instead of the internal media management.

And also realised over an hour has already past and I am still setting up my environments.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 19:22

When: Friday, 28 July 2023 at 6:00pm local time to Sunday, 
30 July 2023 at 8:00pm local time. 
That's 50 hours 
(though you'll almost certainly need sleep and breaks).

The updated time frame. Now you will be going up to the original entry to find out why lol.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 19:41

I asked for clarity, I got something…

rbwhitaker — Today at 19:45
These times are a suggestion. Do whatever you want. But it could be something like:

Friday evening. 10pm local time, 
when you're ready to go to bed for the night. 
(Or 11pm or midnight, if you stay up late.)
Late Saturday morning. 10am local time, 
after you've got some time in for the day.
Late Saturday afternoon. 3pm local time, 
after you've made some more progress.
Saturday evening. 10 pm local time, 
when you're done for the day.
Late Sunday morning. 10am local time, 
after you've gotten some stuff done for the day.
Late Sunday afternoon. 
3pm local time, 
after you've made some more progress.
Sunday evening at the end. 6pm local time, 
when the challenge ends for you.

// modified original text to fit the frame

Let's ROCK and ROLL… I mean, time to set my alarms up…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 19:45

So, because my phone will always be on, and my PC is in power savings mode, and I will be sleeping during set times, I need to adjust the times for the snapshots to fit my sleeping cycles… I get the feeling this means, in my next game jam, [this being my first] I will need to pre-prep this boilerplate stuff in advance by a few hours or days… still not done the alarms… brb

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 19:51

Spotted a typo in the last timeframe update, should be 8pm for the last snapshot at the end of the event.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:03

Now to add them to my phone.

I decided, I would take power naps through the weekend to give myself more time, so expect errant time stamps going forward.

Oh, and I spread the 50 hours by 7 snapshots to get those time frames. The last timeframe gives me an extra hour, a kind of crunch hour.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:04

Alarms set, time to put some food on.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:23

Oh, and while working on this Jam, I figured I may as well run my blog as a wiki too. Should be interesting.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:24

Food is cooking, just about to have my first focus accelerator [nothing serious just an Alka-Seltzer thing with Guarana and Caffeine. Berocca BOOST, Acerola Cherry flavour.]

I just had the thought to make a logo for this Jam while the food is cooking.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:42

Done. added to the top of the page, time to eat. [I made some French fries]

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 20:56

Started watching this while eating, but only got half way before I finished eating. will resume later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01aBYq91KnA

Time to see what to do next.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 21:10

Earlier, I set my list to my To Do list [Microsoft To Do], it makes things simpler, one thing I have relearned, or improved is time management while starting this Jam… note, I have not done anything on the jam yet… mostly just setting up and I have~ 3 hours and 40 minutes until my first snapshot…

As you can see, ticking them off, pose a challenge during the event… so, hopefully I can tick a few off during the event… but yeah… let's see how this goes.

Let me write out my plan. brb.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 21:18

I lost concentration for a moment there, made a hot chocolate to help me think… I think I will take a power nap mid way between snapshots… so… technically I am overdue right now, will have the drink and take a short nap shortly, in the mean time, time to write that plan out.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 21:37

I noticed something interesting just now… it appears the time stamp, is actually when I open the editing page, not when I click the signature button… interesting… will have to think about that one, but for now, will leave it be, so basically, the time stamps are when I began writing the edit, not when I click publish… confusing but, I guess it makes no difference either way, actually, it makes sense, as I can time how long it takes to write something, from the time started, whereas.. whatever, back to that plan writing…

For anyone confused why I am observing this during a jam, I only set this wiki up a few days ago…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 21:39

Time to prepare to take my first power nap. I have very little for my first snapshot, hoping to get something done while I nap, might delve on the project while sleeping…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 22:00

Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to hook the AC up in order to make myself comfortable, been stuffy and hot since waking up, anticipation perhaps?

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 22:04

First nap complete, I did get some things done before taking it, time to do some home chores.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 22:59

Chores complete, back to the plan writing.

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 23:13

So, I finally got the first plan done… time surely flies… This enabled me to re-arrange my tick list…

As you can see, I wanted to see if it were possible to embed a vimeo video, perhaps something in the plugins for this wiki, will look into it on Monday, if I remember. Ah, to hell with it, will try it now.

Due to outside interferences occurring this week, I have been unable to focus, so I keep forgetting what I was thinking, and so, some things may seem erratic along the way… like I forgot what I was going to write here now due to drifting thoughts…

Anyway… here is my plan… as it currently stands…

1- Create a Project Setup guide for MonoGame 
[Not the getting MonoGame part, just setting 
up a project part, this will be the UWP guide 
section].
2- Once the guide is complete, the setting up 
guide will feature the Game-Jam-17 namespaces, 
so this begins the next tick mark, as part 2 is 
a game project after all.
3- Crafting the game, this should be interesting.
4- Create art assets or find legal to distribute 
assets during the creation of the game.
5- Videos, tick this off near the end too. 
I will upload these to my vimeo account.
6- Remembering to sleep, this can be ticked off 
midway through the final crunch period. 
Sleep cycles will be midway each snapshot for 0.5-1 hour.
7- Document the Wiki, this can be ticked last 
at the end of the Jam.

I decided to test adding a plugin for the vimeo integration so here goes…

Err… I am about to install a plugin, and then come back to do a test after backing up the wiki first, then install the plugin…

— MrValentine 2023/07/28 23:47

Success, here is a test video from some old projects… well when I was studying MonoGame some time ago… there is no audio in the video.

EDIT, nothing seems to work, will try another plugin… Tested with both YouTube and Vimeo.

Installed another plugin, testing now: nope

I need to save first I think as it did not show in a preview edit. This edit history is going to get ugly lol.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 00:06

Reminded why I dislike web development so much… don't even want to document the procedure I just went through… just hope it does not bite me down the line… more time wasted, sigh…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 00:31

Figured I wasted enough time, may as well just test a little further…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 00:37

OK, enough time wasted on that… back to whatever I was doing…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 00:41

Getting a little frustrated at this point what with all the external issues… anyway coming on my first snapshot, I have basically started on the UWP guide.

And here we are…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:02

Realised I did not set any alarms for the sleep cycles so I just set a 3 hour timer on my watch, hopefully I remember what it is for haha.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:04

Before I forget to post it, this is the picture of my first snapshot :(

I was hoping to have more to show in terms of a videogame window but here we are… hoping for better progress for the next snapshot…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:05

Moving on, I figured, using links to the video listings was actually far neater than an embed, so, I shall do so going forward.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:15

Just taking a side step to explore a thought on a keyboard idea…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:34

Got peckish, making something to eat again.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 01:47

OK, back, had some beans, and needed to ruminate on a few steps ahead, the concept of sharing the end product… While I may be using the Game Jam 17 name in the namespaces in the project, I figured the published name can be whatever I like it to be…

Now, being a UWP Developer by default, [I may cover this on my personal page. at some point, just click my signatures.] I have yet to actually develop anything in MonoGame, that is to say, other than something made through a tutorial… so, I have never submitted a game to the uhh, Windows Store? they have renamed so many times I have given up keeping track.

So, this Jam presents some interesting prospects, I could potentially do a few things here.

1- The code is here anyway, users can follow along and compile the code themselves [Just realised I can make my first public GitHub repo…] and I can include the assets somehow. 2- Share an APK and explain how to install it. [Not a fan of this one, something something privacy concerns] 3- Publish the Hello World [CornflowerBlue screen] stage of the app to the store as soon as it is going and submit it to the store for publishing to then find out if it passes, with it being the weekend, unsure if this will happen. 4- Publish at the end and hope it makes it to the store, but show a video at the end. 5- I might not publish at all and just let people use the code developed and figure out a licencing that lets them use it. [Hey, learning by doing I suppose]

Side note, Prime video added the two Sherlock Holmes movies, something to enjoy in the background perhaps.

Really unfocussed tonight due to the events earlier in the week but I shall try to push on slowly…

I need to look into the publishing side of things to see if I can publish under a different name… more to follow…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 02:21

Looking into it, I may be able to shift the publisher name?

Time to think of an App Name…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 02:43

Just thinking, I should probably give a little back story, not a full one, just a quick one…

I have been learning to code on and off since late 2010, C# since around 2012 I believe, if not 2014, so close to a decade of C# and .NET.

With that said, I have some concepts I wish to utilise during this project, more soon…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 02:50

OK, I am kind of unsure of whether to use the standard submission process or a game submission… I will try the app, then game, or both, will see… anyway, I thought of a name finally…

JAM MAN

Do you like it?

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:02

Just in case I forgot to mention, it appears I cannot change the publishers name, oh well… I will leave this one for later perhaps…. but I could explain the submission process… something to add to the wiki at some point.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:07

Oh, it is currently called the Microsoft Store, I better try to keep that consistent from now on… until they rename it again…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:10

I remembered Kenney, no not that one, this one:

https://kenney.nl/

So, I may end up spending a little time finding assets to drive my visual style…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:44

Slightly side tracked by the Falcon Heavy launch attempt, at the time of writing, there is still ~10 minutes to go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ixbPMe6684

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:53

My second power nap approaches, will delay for after the Falcon Heavy launch, if it happens… 5 minutes to go!

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 03:57

LIFT-OFF!!! WOW!

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 04:04

Amazing dual rocket landings, well done SpaceX!

Time for a power nap. and then selecting a visual style.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 04:12

OH, quick thought, must remember to attribute Kenney.nl somewhere.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 04:15

Imagine that…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 05:42

So, while looking for some assets through the Kenney collection, I started having ideas…

I don't think I have the time to implement tiles, that is, tiles of textures to represent a map, but I could… draw a map or craft a map to the resolution of a screen say 1920×1080, and then I got thinking, sure I could just load this image to fill the background, but what if I could get the player to hunt around the screen for treasure! let's make a digger game!

Let me think about this a little more…

And I found this which could help with the map design…

https://kenney.nl/assets/tiny-town

And figured what could the treasure be? why not have more than one?

https://kenney.nl/assets/rune-pack

That pack should suffice for now, still looking for a player character though, brb…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 06:26

This should do for now…

https://kenney.nl/assets/platformer-characters

Let me see if it works…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 06:46

Thinking about fonts…

https://kenney.nl/assets/tiny-ski

That kit has something, will explore it now as well

He also has this…

https://kenney.nl/assets/kenney-fonts

Which I shall explore as well…

If that fails, you get my Community Font 1…

http://eijtom.com/ifontmaker-win/gallery/?id=RzOVa3qI

Feel free to use it in your projects too…

OK, lets take a closer look at everything and see about crafting a map…

Oh, I have donated to Kenney in the past, if you find his products useful and plan to use them, try donating something, small or large…

See you in a bit.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 06:57

OK, so in the fonts bundle, https://kenney.nl/assets/kenney-fonts I like: Kenney Blocks.ttf

That's a font sorted, for now.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:01

I like the selection so far… aside from Tiny Ski, the rest have worked out well, I feel confident I can do something with them. Tiny Ski, I may need more time to play with it to use it but let's see how I do…

The only issue I found was, the scale of the textures for the tiles… but a recent discussion reminded me of a solution to this, using a small resolution to then scale it up… will see what issues this presents down the line but for now, I need to find that resolution again… brb…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:16

OOOOOh the next snapshot is looming…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:21

So, Posting this a little early, but this will be my second snapshot, as I have a lot of thinking to do regarding scaling… as you may make out with the image…

Time to do some funny scaling…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:35

Just to fill in the void, this is the image which represents my Scond Snapshot:

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:41

Scaling it up seems to work better…

But it gave me an idea…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 07:54

And it strikes…

Here is some more scaling play, think I have it just right now…

Time to design a simple map…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 08:01

So, it looks like the map will extend past the screen, I think I can fill it with things to make it look like it should be like that, will use some of the wall tiles…

I made a grid of 128×128 squares and tiled them to help me place and design a map. not done this in a while but here goes…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 08:08

OK, I made a mistake somewhere…

Time to redraw the grid…

Oh, yeah the scale aspect ratio thing was on, I did not think it was enabled…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 08:15

There we go, time to grab something to eat though…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 08:20

Cooking took a while, was just boiled potatoes… not made it in a while, what a mess… next time will just make pasta…

Back in a bit…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 09:34

And I give you, The Background Map.

Remember to use Nearest Neighbour when exporting the edited tiles as the larger image.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:02

You know, it has been a while… I am just going to say, here is the logo?

I really need to study how to name things concerning games… perhaps a banner logo?

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:15

I think, I should be ready to craft the project setup guide now?

No wait… SOUND!

Time to comb through some assets… oh no… got to find an online repository thing… brb…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:28

OK, so, I found this site about 10 days ago, and just remembered it, will look for music and sound effects, music first I guess…

https://opengameart.org/art-search-advanced?keys=&field_art_type_tid%5B%5D=12&sort_by=count&sort_order=DESC

See you in a long bit.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:38

I think I want CC0? will use that for now…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:41

It appeard to be so.

https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/

Music listening time, I swear I am looking for a mood…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:43

This handy feature of my browser [Edge] is super handy to avoid having another browser window on my screen, currently I have like 5, and also, not tearing up my tabs list… make use of it in your next search, create a tab group, then any links you middle click with the mouse, will remain a part of the collection, a very handy feature indeed!

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 10:48

Nap 3 has snuck up on me so soon… but I should keep at them or my mind might fry lol… see you in a bit…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 11:00

Before I take the nap, I selected this tune for the BGM, or BackGround Music…

https://opengameart.org/content/orchestra-loop

Sound Effects or SFX next…

Ciao. for now.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 11:04

Oh, and this could be a menu track…

https://opengameart.org/content/orchestra-loop

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 11:06

Hello… that was a long one…

Let me post the next Snapshot…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 15:01

Snapshot 3 is already here so…

I need to sort out some chores now.

Back soon.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 15:05

Just a quick revisit to the music, I picked out another music track, as one of the previous two was an .mp3 format, I want to stick with .ogg so here is choice substitute:

If I do end up making a menu, this can be the music for it.

https://opengameart.org/content/peasant-theme

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 16:12

OK!, so I found some walking sounds… will explore between these two:

https://opengameart.org/content/random-sounds-samples

https://opengameart.org/content/footsteps-0

Now I just need a digging sound effect and maybe a menu sound effect…

Before that, time to eat again…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 16:21

Going through sound effects, got me thinking, is my player just going to go around digging things up?

Needs some kind of… Level Up feature! Welp, it happened, we RPG'd it…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 16:25

Not gone to eat yet, too distracted with finding a menu UI sound effect… found a few…

https://opengameart.org/content/beep-tone-sound-sfx

https://opengameart.org/content/menu-select-tick

https://opengameart.org/content/click

https://opengameart.org/content/a-kinda-cool-sound-effect

https://opengameart.org/content/interface-beeps

Some are in .Wav format, which is fine too, sticking with .ogg and .wav.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 16:32

Found some packs, which also brought my attention to another site:

https://freesound.org/

The page that indicated it:

https://opengameart.org/content/sound-effects-pack

The other pack:

https://opengameart.org/content/8-bit-sound-effect-pack

Almost immediately I found this lovely sound…

https://freesound.org/people/JustinBW/sounds/80921/

OK, so we meet CC BY 4.0…

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Which states human readable, but does not state plain English, fair enough, so basically, some credits are due, which makes me think… I need some music for a credits screen…

Still not gone to eat yet, this is too intriguing!

I think I am good for Menu sounds, just need to find a digging sound, oh and a discovery sound, and the credits music… brb will go eat now… I Promise… [Post edit, I did eat breakfast, I just forgot to mention it… — MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:22]

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 16:39

Just noticed you must login to download on freesound, so leaving that out for now. but I will most definitely be joining for that sound there.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:07

Found a wonderful piece of music, might actually use this for the in-game music…

https://opengameart.org/content/medieval-minstrel-dance

I will be using the loop wav file.

That just leaves the discovery sound effect… for now… I need to inspect the collections from earlier if I have a digging sound effect…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:14

Well, look who just popped up, Why did he not keep the sounds on his website?

https://opengameart.org/users/kenney

https://opengameart.org/content/interface-sounds

https://opengameart.org/content/50-rpg-sound-effects

https://opengameart.org/content/85-short-music-jingles

https://opengameart.org/content/51-ui-sound-effects-buttons-switches-and-clicks

And I also found this which could possibly be the discovery sound…

https://opengameart.org/content/8bit-fanfare-jingle-the-lick

And I just realised the time is nearing half way into the challenge and I have yet to craft any code…

And I just found this, had to search for Dig, despite the word Shovel being in the title… worth noting…

https://opengameart.org/content/shovel-sound

Is that everything? looks like it for now, time to reassess where i am in the process.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:22

I decided to skip the tutorial for the time being as I can see the code building up. if I find time I will work on it.

It is becoming a mental block at this point, that one and a half hour lost doing the potatoes…….

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:47

Time to assess what I need to do next as my next power nap is looming…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:49

Hmm, I need to develop a structure for coding vs. sharing code… I think if I code first, get it working as 'desired' then share… that could work… if I share as I code, before iterating, might take a while…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:54

Big oof… I almost lost my GDD, Game Design Document… got distracted and clicked close on the word document and thought I had not saved it and tapped my keyboard at the same moment…. got to stop watching YouTube in regular speed… getting stuffy again, AC on…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 17:58

Below you will find an overview of the err things I need to code… I have formatted it to fit a narrower view.

The Processes:
Load Assets

Display a splash screen.

Show a menu with the following elements:
PLAY
SETTINGS [If I get that far]
CREDITS [Or scroll it across the bottom 
of the screen? But then no music :/]
EXIT

States: [This will be my first time playing 
with states so, time to deploy the Enum]
PLAY:
Draw the background
Draw the player
Set up hidden treasures
Display the UI
Play Background Music
Enable Controls

SETTINGS:
Clear the screen
Draw the menu
Enable input

CREDITS:
Play a credits screen with a button to 
return to the main menu.
Enable input.

EXIT:
Show an exit screen saying thank you for 
playing, and exit the game gracefully.

I may hit my err Fourth? power nap earlier to avoid oversleeping…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 18:22

Yep, just 3.5 hours to my next snapshot, I want to at least have some text on the screen by then…

Catch you in a bit.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 18:25

Had a brief lay down but could not stop thinking to add:

I see this Jam as an experience building exercise, while it is a relaxed Jam, I want to apply the intensity of a competitive Jam so I can have a sense of what to expect in a competitive Jam.

Also, it helps me learn what needs focussing on, and things to avoid doing, such as cooking fresh potatoes…

Will add a bit more to my nap.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 19:07

Back, wanted to add, I think Jam Man, could become a long term project, as one thing missing from my studies was a continual project, I am reading so many books, but not really joining the things learned into umm, something that gives it merit if that makes sense… so Jam Man may become a long term, and as much as possible entirely open source…

I am sure there will come a time when that becomes restrictive, but that is for later down the line. As I will be using GitHub CoPilot AI, I feel I may as well, but for commercial projects, that becomes a different debate anyway, I do not use the Use Public Data option with CoPilot, as honestly besides the top level explanation, there is not much more said about it.

OK, back to figuring out what I am doing next…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 19:50

I decided using Game Jam 17 in the namespace would be confusing going forward after the Jam, and I really don't want to have a dozen Public Repos, so, I will just use Jam_Man? with that decided, I can probably get the code going…

Food time…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 19:58

Made some noodles, but more than usual, giving myself ~20 minutes to consume, and then I need to hack together something for the next, umm Fourth Snapshot!

Brb.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 20:42

In Anticipation of future releases, I have dubbed the project Jam Man I, I being 1.

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 21:11

OK, I may have broken a Project Naming convention…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 21:15

It appears having _ underscores in a project name is causing issues, funny time to discover this… something to review on Monday…

JamManDigs is the Project name but I will change this to show Jam Man Digs on the Window… err in the Package Manifest…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 21:21

I have 30 minutes to get something more pretty on display… here goes…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 21:24

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 22:07

Just about made it!

I was rushing to post this Snapshot, just under 10 minutes late but I was fiddling with some code to draw the banner… time to tackle that now…

I forgot the previous signature… getting sloppy!

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 22:09

OK, so to explain the five images… and the missing 6th…

1-A is the Intro screen in the intro state, rapidly created just past my Snapshot 4 moment.

1-B is the Jam splash banner inside the intro state [the aforementioned 6th image]

1- is the Menu screen in the menu state

3- is the settings screen in the settings state, also rapidly created just past my Snapshot 4 moment.

4- is the game screen in the game state

5- is the exit screen in the exit state, again, also rapidly created just past my Snapshot 4 moment.

I have at present a switch using the gamepad to move between states.

Time to figure out what is next…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 22:26

Created a few more screens… and updated some…

The intro splash screen:

The Credits screen:

The Exit screen:

The Settings screen:

Still fiddling with screen aspect issues for now…

More to follow…

— MrValentine 2023/07/29 23:00

The fuzzy feeling when your app has an icon in the taskbar…

The Iconography:

The Taskbar appearance made larger for viewing:

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 00:03

So, I have this so far:

Severals screens representing the various modes of the game using a state machine function…

I added Press A to skip the intro screen… which might remain as is for the time being as I am using the Start button to switch between modes, the Back button is being used to switch between full screen and windowed modes. While writing this I had another idea… brb

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 00:09

Running into some bugs… trying to fix and also reconnect github… oh boy… might not be able to make this project public…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 00:47

Fixed that, now fixing some asset issues…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 00:55

Remembering that a state machine is in both the Update and Draw methods is fun…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 01:11

When you forget you copy pasted something and the problem was right there in front of you…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 01:17

Now I want to add the font, and add a humming? strobing Press A to continue thing…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 01:18

If you did or did not, you get two anyway!

https://vimeo.com/849821191

https://vimeo.com/849821203

Hope these work…

I am overdue a rest break so will share these and nap…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 01:58

Power Nap 5 over, time to add some sounds…

Feel like I am getting a rhythm going now…

Cleaned up the states to have independent sprite batching…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 02:56

Started adding the music, not the sfx, but getting distracted a little by LTX 2023…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 03:06

Hitting a strange roadblock with playing music…

Still investigating…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 03:30

Coming up on next snapshot and really want sound to be working… sigh…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 04:22

Appears to be resolved, but now I need to figure out what I will be showcasing in the fifth snapshot… and I really want to get some pizza dough going, so need to go do that so will work on the fifth snapshot now and go do that…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 04:35

I realised I have not posted a few of the snapshot time pieces… will go back and add those at the end…

REDUCE VOLUME BEFORE PLAYING! https://vimeo.com/849838564

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 05:13

Before I forget, a few names from the Discord to put in the credits:

Aristurtle

jayrulez

absoluteAquarian

More to follow

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 05:20

Reminder to self, clean up Music playback.

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 05:31

Just set some Pizza dough up, 45 minutes before I can bake, lets see if I can fix the sound issues…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 05:48

So, I need to fix navigation between states before finalising music… long morning ahead…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 06:16

I need to stop using the start button to shift between states, I think if I remove that it can help the flow… I might go as far as drawing a diagram… nope, nope…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 06:17

Silly me, I was treating the state as a loop… lets see if I am right…

I burnt my upper mouth with my pizza :/ on the plus side, it was delicious!

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 07:24

That fixed the glitching between states, next, time to set the music up for each screen.

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 07:46

Not happy with the state order, but I think the good news is I only need to re-arrange the Enum, and not the code down in Update() and Draw()…

Getting into a rhythm…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 08:13

public enum GameState
    {
        Intro,
        ButtonControls,
        Menu,
        Game,
        Settings,
        Credits,
        Exit
    }

This did the trick…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 08:15

Time to design a crude input map…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 08:58

And very quickly I realised I need one for the menu, and one for in-game….

But I did find something nifty…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 09:01

Back soon…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 09:26

Mental note, I have around six hours to add the player character, sfx, collision detection, and the UI for the RPG elements, the RPG elements themselves… and whatever else I come across in my mind later…

See you in half an hour or so…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 09:30

Back to square one on input navigation…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 10:38

Beginning to feel like I should be treating states like loops…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 10:43

Figured it out… sigh… I will likely sleep for 12 hours after this mess…

Time to add the sfx for the UI button presses…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 10:58

I am ether really tired or my IDE is being silly…

I got my current and previous state orders mixed up…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 11:17

Every time I see the Menu screen, it taunts me…

Navigation system complete, let's see about adding that beep effect to button presses…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 11:19

Got the click beep sorted, but it got me thinking, what about the vibration feedback?

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 11:22

I present to you, that moment I forgot to wear my watch,,,

Got a surprise for you, hang tight…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 12:03

Hopefully I don't forget to include the MonoGame Logo in this lol

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 12:34

https://vimeo.com/849878327

Almost forgot to share the snapshot video with you…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 12:35

OK, time to grab a drink and figure out what is next…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 12:51

Managed to add volume controls in the right stick up/down…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 12:59

OK, think I need a nap…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 13:23

Big oof, think I gave myself food poisoning… oh well, I am still going to try getting a win scenario here and set my goal to adding the player character and moving around. Let's Go!

Oh and my speakers decided to die this weekend :/…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 17:51

Player sprite added and animated and crude bounds added.

Now to add the walk sound.

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 18:46

Walking sfx implemented…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 19:17

I learnt I hate the MGCB… brb preparing my end of Jam SnapShot Video…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 20:04

And there you have it… my end of 50 hour thing…

https://vimeo.com/849953871?share=copy

I did allow myself until midnight to fix bugs and make it more feature fixed, but time to eat…

There will be further logs either here or in a new page…

Thank you for reading.

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 20:19

How it went…

— MrValentine 2023/07/30 20:30